LACONIA LACTANTIUS 



343 



dangerous men. His enemies have maintained that 

 lie has drawn his own cliaracter in that of the 

 viscount de Valmont in his romance. Others cele- 

 brate the simplicity, honesty, anil good nature of his 

 character, at least in the latter part of his life. He 

 was one of the leaders of the Orleans faction, as it 

 was called. Being implicated in the affair of the 5th 

 and 6th of October, he followed the duke of Orleans 

 to London. After the return of the king from 

 \ r arennes, Laclos endeavoured, by means of the 

 Jacobin club, to effect the foundation of a republic, 

 as he conceived that this step would lead eventually 

 to the elevation of the house of Orleans to the French 

 throne. At the breaking out of the war, Laclos was 

 transferred as an assistant to the old Luckner, and, 

 after the fall of the house of Orleans, he disappeared 

 from the stage. It is difficult to explain how Robes- 

 pierre came to spare a man who was one of the 

 firmest adherents of this proscribed house ; and thus 

 the report originated, that Laclos prepared the 

 speeches of the tribune of the people. After the 

 Dili Tliermidor, Laclos returned to the military pro- 

 fession, and was advanced to the office of inspector- 

 general of artillery. He died at Tarentum, in 1803. 



LACONIA. See Sparta. 



LACRETELLE ; two brothers well known as 

 authors, but entirely opposed to each other in 

 principles. 



1. Pierre Louis Lacretelle, the elder (commonly 

 called Lacretelle aine), was born in 1751, at Metz, 

 where his father was an advocate, and died Sept. 5, 

 1824, at Paris. Animated, by the masterly works of 

 the advocate-general Servan, to the study of the law, 

 ethics, and literature, he went, in 1778, to Paris, 

 where he became parliamentary advocate, and by his 

 writings Eloge de Montausier (which obtained the 

 second prize in 1781), Memoir es du Compte de Saunois 

 (a work new and unique in its kind), and the Discours 

 sur le prejuge des Peines infamantes (which received 

 the prize of the academy) rendered himself worthy 

 of a place in the institute, where he succeeded La 

 Harpe, with whom he was concerned in editing the 

 Mercure an occupation which he undertook anew, 

 in 1817, under very different circumstances, in con- 

 junction with Jouy, Jay, B. Constant and others. 

 Lacretelle embraced the principles of the revolution 

 with the ardour of a noble mind, but without concur- 

 ring in its excesses. In the legislative assembly, in 

 1792, he was one of the leaders of the constitutional 

 party, in opposition to the Girondists, who were in 

 favour of republicanism. After the 10th of August, 

 Lacretelle devoted his attention wholly to literature. 

 We find him again in public life in 1801, when he 

 was a member of the legislative body of Napoleon. 

 Here he retained his independence in the midst of 

 political revolutions. When the government of Na- 

 poleon destroyed his hopes of the establishment of a 

 liberty- founded on the laws, he again retired. His 

 poverty, which he neither complained of nor regretted, 

 was honourable to him. The aristocratical reaction, 

 which took place in France, after the second restora- 

 tion, and was particularly memorable in the chamber 

 of 1815 (see Chambre Jntrouvable), threw him into 

 the opposition, which the liberal party at that time 

 began to form, and in support of which they had 

 undertaken the direction of the Mercure de France. 

 But this journal, which appeared on fixed days, 

 becoming subject, in consequence of a new law, to 

 the inspection of the censor of the press, was given 

 up, and the Minerve Francaise, which appeared 

 irregularly, took its place. Lacretelle, in conjunc- 

 tion with Aignan, had the direction of this literary 

 and political journal. The Minerve Francaise ob- 

 tained so decided an influence upon public opinion, 

 that this was also subjected, by a new ordinance, to 



the censorship, after eight volumes liad been pub- 

 lished, upon which it was immediately discontinued. 

 Lacretelle, who was now a bookseller, hazarded a 

 continuation of it in the form of small pamphlets ; 

 but he was subjected to a prosecution, in which he 

 defended himself with great energy and ability. He 

 was condemned, however, to imprisonment; but Louis 

 XVIII. remitted the sentence on account of his age 

 and infirmities, and the general esteem in which he 

 was held. From that time, Lacretelle employed him- 

 self upon a collection of his works, which appeared 

 at Paris, in 1823, in four parts. He was the author 

 of many logical, metaphysical, and ethical articles in 

 the Encyclopedic methodique. Many of his scattered 

 essays and treatises appeared in 1802, under the title 

 of (Euvres diverses, in five volumes, to which, in 

 1817, he subjoined Fragmens politiques ct litteraires, 

 and, in 1822, (Euvres, arid Portraits et Tableaux 

 (among them those of Mirabeau, Bonaparte, and 

 Lafayette), in two volumes. His theatrical romance 

 Mal/ierbe, ou le Fils naturel (D'Alembert), is an 

 excellent dramatic poem. His Soirees avec Guil- 

 laume Lamoignon de Malesherbes, and his Etudes sur 

 la Revolution Franqaise, are also highly esteemed. 

 Both have been published since his death. 



2. Charles Lacretelle, the younger brother of the 

 preceding, went, when very young, to Paris, at the 

 breaking out of the revolution. He soon attracted 

 attention by his logical acuteness, and the editorial 

 department of the Journal des Debats, which was 

 established at that time, was committed to him in 

 connexion with another individual by the name of 

 H. Ducos. His second literary production was his 

 Precis de la Revolution, which was a continuation of 

 the work of Rabaud St Etienne. On the occasion 

 of the opposition of the Parisian sections to the 

 decree of the national convention retaining two-thirds 

 of their number in the new legislature, Charles La- 

 cretelle composed, in the name of the sections, the 

 caustic addresses to the convention, as well as to the 

 electoral assemblies of France; but, on the 13th 

 Vendemiaire, Bonaparte put an end to these com- 

 motions. Being, however, attached to the then 

 existing opposition, and using his influence in its 

 favour, he was, on the 18th Fructidor, arrested, and 

 retained prisoner for two years. After the 18th 

 Brumaire, however, Napoleon employed his talents 

 in various occupations. In 1813, he received Esme- 

 nard's place in the national institute, and, in 1816, the 

 presidency of the French academy, or the third class 

 of the institute. The historical lectures, which, as 

 professor of history, he delivered before the university 

 of Paris, were among the most frequented in that city. 

 As an historical writer he has a peculiarly brilliant 

 diction, although his ideas want force and profundity. 

 His Histoire de France pendant les Guerres de Reli- 

 gion is more highly esteemed than his Histoire de 

 France pendant le dix-huitieme Siecle (14 volumes, 

 1826). Lacretelle has now renounced his former 

 philosophical views. In his L'Histoire de Vdssem- 

 blee constituante, he takes part entirely with the 

 ultras and obscurants. During twenty-six years, he 

 was censor of the department of the drama. He has 

 been termed the chief support of the Societe des 

 bonnes Lettres, so called. He was likewise honoured 

 with the dignity of nobility by Louis XVIII. lu 

 1827, the ministry deprived him of his censor's office, 

 because he favoured, in the academy, the petition to 

 the king against the laws respecting the censorship 

 of the press. In 1829 appeared his Histoire de 

 France depuis la Restauration. 



LACTANTIUS, Lucius COSLIOS FIRMIANUS, a 



celebrated father of the Latin church, distinguished 



as an orator and author, is commonly supposed to 



j have been an African. He lived for a long time at 



